“The people were filled with expectation,

and all were asking in their hearts

whether John might be the Christ.

John answered them all, saying, 

‘I am baptizing you with water,

but one mightier than I is coming.

I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.’

After all the people had been baptized 

and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, 

heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him

in bodily form like a dove. 

And a voice came from heaven, 

‘You are my beloved Son;

with you I am well pleased.’”

I was baptized one week after I was born. Because I was a month premature, my dad was there when I was born and, even, when I came home from the hospital. He was not able to be there for my baptism, however, because he had to leave on orders to Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division Artillery. Much of the family did gather at St. Henry Catholic Church in Elsmere (near Erlanger), Kentucky. It was a day of joy and, in the order of grace, perhaps the most significant day of my life.  

There was no voice from heaven or the Spirit descending like a dove, but because we are baptized into Christ Jesus, our Heavenly Father does speak to each of us at our baptism, “You are my beloved child; with you I am well pleased.” It is the fundamental reality of who we truly are. But, it doesn’t mean things will be easy. 

Jesus goes immediately from his baptism to be tempted by the devil in the desert. He would later be challenged, plotted against, abandoned, betrayed, and deserted. He would suffer and die on the cross. In all of that, he lived out his fundamental identity: the Beloved Son of the Father. The love of the Father gave him strength to do the will of the Father. May the love of God, likewise, give us the strength to fight temptations, bear our burdens, and carry our crosses. We, each and every one, are the beloved of God! Remember who you truly are.